The Black Lotus Investigation Team
From the high ground he had claimed, Yoo Eunhyeon first sensed the presence of people climbing up from below.
There were three men and one woman. The woman had her face veiled with a face covering, yet the fine wrinkles etched around her exposed eyes spoke of long years and hard-won experience.
Among the men, the first to catch his eye was the one dressed in luxurious silk. Beside him stood a man in plain gray clothes, and last of all a figure clad entirely in black, a mask covering his mouth, who stood in silent watchfulness.
In numbers alone they matched the laborers who had come the day before, yet the aura they radiated was so different that comparison was almost insulting. Their mere presence made Yoo Eunhyeon’s body tremble of its own accord.
“Young Hero. How do you do?”
The man at the head of the group, wearing wide-sleeved robes, narrowed his eyes into a smiling crescent as he spoke.
At first glance he looked ordinary enough, yet the arms and legs visible through the loose fabric were excessively thin, and the face with its prominent cheekbones carried a strangely meticulous, exacting air.
“How do you do?”
Yoo Eunhyeon already had a fair idea of who they were. Still, when someone approached with a smile like that, one could hardly spit harsh words straight into their face. He returned the greeting with proper courtesy first.
“Judging by your appearance, Young Hero, you seem to be a farmer. Am I correct?”
The man’s way of speaking was a little peculiar, yet not so much that it grated. Yoo Eunhyeon, who felt not the slightest shame at being taken for a farmer, simply nodded.
“That’s right. And you all? Are you guests?”
“Guests? No. A guest is someone who visits another’s domain. We are not guests. We are an investigation team that came after hearing rumors that some ruffians had occupied someone else’s building and even driven out our own employees.”
The man delivered the words with a pointed edge, casting a sidelong look at Yoo Eunhyeon. In that gaze lay the quiet certainty of someone who already knew everything.
And of course, when the other party came at him like that, the proper response was to meet them in kind.
“Not guests? That’s a problem. If you come to someone else’s house and claim you’re not guests, that leaves only thieves or bandits… A thief would sneak in. Seeing how boldly you’ve walked right up, I suppose you’re not thieves after all.”
Which, of course, left only bandits. From the standpoint of a man whose home had been taken, these people were little better than open robbers, and he said as much.
“For a farmer, you’ve got quite a tongue on you.”
For a moment their eyes locked in midair. The man kept his eyes narrowed and smiled faintly.
“But it seems there is some misunderstanding. When a misunderstanding exists, one ought to clear it up first, don’t you think? The method is a secondary concern.”
“I don’t know what misunderstanding there could be… but go ahead and speak.”
The man’s words carried the implication that the methods for clearing up misunderstandings might well include forceful ones. Yoo Eunhyeon, however, looked utterly unconcerned as he plopped himself back down on the tree stump he had been sitting on earlier. At that, the man slightly raised his narrowed eyes and asked,
“Young Hero. Are you truly a farmer?”
“I am. I’ve farmed here my whole life.”
At Yoo Eunhyeon’s still-calm reply, the man bit his lip for an instant, then turned his head slightly to glance at the woman and two men behind him. The woman gave a small nod. The man turned back, smiled once more, and spread both arms in an exaggerated gesture.
“Since this conversation seems likely to run long, we should at least introduce ourselves. I am Ji Heun-dong, Shandong Branch Manager of the Black Lotus Merchant Guild.”
Some silent signal had passed among them, some calculation completed. Ji Heun-dong’s manner toward Yoo Eunhyeon had shifted, if only a little.
He had cast off the coercive posture and now seemed ready to talk in earnest—yet to Yoo Eunhyeon that very change only made him more suspicious.
Normally people try talking first and only get rough when that fails, don’t they? Yet he was about to get rough and then suddenly switched to talking?
Even a simple thought showed the logic was backward. Yoo Eunhyeon kept his doubts to himself and, without letting anything show on his face, gave his own name.
“I am Yoo Eunhyeon.”
After yesterday’s conversation with Ju Yu-ryeon he had no intention of hiding his identity, so he offered the name lightly.
Hearing it, Ji Heun-dong glanced back again at the three behind him.
The two men shook their heads slightly, as if the name meant nothing to them. But the moment the woman heard “Yoo Eunhyeon,” the eyes that had shown no change until now flickered, and she began to stare at him intently.
It was not a casual glance. It felt as though she were examining every detail of him, trying to determine exactly what sort of person this Yoo Eunhyeon was. The blatant scrutiny left him more unsettled than anything else.
I’m sure I’ve never met her. Yet the way she’s looking at me, it’s as if she knows me.
The oddity lingered, but Yoo Eunhyeon set it aside and looked back at Ji Heun-dong, who had turned forward once more.
“I apologize for what happened yesterday. Our workers seem to have been far too rude.”
“It sounds as though you’ve already heard the full story. In that case there’s little left to discuss at length, is there? For using someone else’s house without permission for a whole year, I’ll refrain from saying anything further.”
“Well now… For someone who left his house empty so long, you’re rather bold.”
“Am I supposed to feel ashamed for leaving my own house empty for a long time?”
“Leaving it empty with no precautions at all is a problem in itself, is it not? Situations like ours can arise.”
Ji Heun-dong shrugged as he spoke, but Yoo Eunhyeon shook his head.
“I said the same thing yesterday—spare me the useless talk. What is it you actually want? If it’s really about the warehouse being a shame to lose, you can just build another one, can’t you?”
“Of course it isn’t about the warehouse.”
“Then?”
“This matter is quite important to our guild as well. Orders came down to exclude outsiders as much as possible.”
Ji Heun-dong smiled thinly, narrowing his eyes even further. The intent behind the words was plain.
He simply wanted Yoo Eunhyeon to leave this place. Naturally, Yoo Eunhyeon had no such intention.
“I see. Well, do your best. Though I wonder who these ‘outsiders’ could even be. This place is so remote that outsiders rarely come.”
With that, Yoo Eunhyeon rose from his seat. From his point of view, the outsider in question could never be himself, and the action reflected that certainty.
“Whoa, whoa. Hold on a moment. You know full well what I mean, yet you’re being quite contrary. Still, our Black Lotus Merchant Guild always obtains what it desires. Ordinarily we employ various methods, but…”
Ji Heun-dong’s eyes flashed sharply as he rummaged in his robes. What he produced was unexpected.
“A promissory note?”
“Hand this place over to us. We will pay above market value.”
“You’re saying you’ll buy it with money?”
“We looked into it ourselves and confirmed that your family has lived here for a long time. So we are willing to acknowledge that. Our purpose is money, so we prefer to settle problems with money as well.”
He did not bother to mention the threat that came packaged with the offer. In truth this was already a considerable concession. They would not normally negotiate this way, but he could not ignore the people standing behind him.
“We have surveyed all the farmland in the vicinity. Ordinarily we would never offer this much for a mountain like this, but two hundred gold taels for everything should be more than enough.”
Two hundred gold taels was an enormous sum. Ji Heun-dong clearly expected Yoo Eunhyeon to accept the proposal as a matter of course—yet Yoo Eunhyeon did not so much as glance at the note being held out to him.
“I don’t need the money.”
“You’re saying it’s not enough? Your greed is excessive.”
Ji Heun-dong’s eyes narrowed in a frown, but Yoo Eunhyeon cut him off firmly.
“Money or no money, we have no intention of leaving this place.”
“Are you serious?”
“Don’t make me say it twice.”
“So you are serious. In that case…”
Realizing there was no hidden meaning in Yoo Eunhyeon’s words, Ji Heun-dong sighed and tucked the note away. Silence settled over the surroundings for a moment.
It was the taut, drawn-bowstring stillness that comes just before a storm. Both sides had instinctively understood, through the conversation just past, that neither would yield.
“Then…”
Ji Heun-dong looked at Yoo Eunhyeon, then glanced once more behind him. His eyes met those of the man in the luxurious clothes; a small nod passed between them.
Just as Ji Heun-dong’s hand moved toward his waist—
“Eunhyeon, did we have guests?”
Su Hwa-seon’s voice floated from the direction of the house. Drawn by the commotion, Su Hwa-seon and Ju Yu-ryeon had appeared.
“They said they weren’t guests, but they don’t seem to be bandits or thieves either.”
“Then what are they? Peddlers?”
As if she had somehow seen the moment Ji Heun-dong had been about to produce the note, Su Hwa-seon asked the question. Ji Heun-dong’s eyelid twitched.
As a merchant by trade, the word “peddler” had clearly scraped a nerve.
And in truth, a branch manager of the Black Lotus Merchant Guild was not someone who should be treated that way.
“Well, the deal did fall through.”
Yoo Eunhyeon answered with a short laugh, but Ji Heun-dong, seasoned merchant that he was, recovered his composure at once. His gaze shifted to Su Hwa-seon.
“And who might you be?”
“I am Eunhyeon’s mother.”
“Oh-ho? May I take it that the real person in charge has finally appeared? It shames me as a merchant to say so, but Young Hero Yoo Eunhyeon here is rather difficult to talk to.”
The conversation with Yoo Eunhyeon must have worn on him; Ji Heun-dong addressed Su Hwa-seon directly. She only shook her head firmly and stepped back.
“In our household, this child is the head of the family. You needn’t concern yourself with me.”
At her deliberately fussy declaration, Yoo Eunhyeon glanced at her, wondering since when he had been the head of the household. Su Hwa-seon only wore a mother’s warm smile and mouthed the words without sound.
From now on.
In other words, she had just handed him the position. Yoo Eunhyeon was left speechless, yet since he had come out to handle the matter alone in the first place, he said nothing further and turned back to Ji Heun-dong.
“So she says.”
“Is that so? Well… since the task I must perform remains the same either way, it makes no difference.”
Ji Heun-dong offered no further comment. Yoo Eunhyeon began paying more attention to the three people behind him. Having refused the money, he expected those three might step forward next—yet
“Here.”
Ji Heun-dong drew another paper from his robes and held it out. Thinking it was the promissory note again, Yoo Eunhyeon looked at what was offered and murmured,
“…A land deed?”